No one in my family ever burned water, and neither have I, but housemates…
Granted the housemate who boiled off plain water had a good excuse: she put on water for soup, dashed out to buy vegetables, and got mugged on her way to the grocery. No injuries, but it took her a while to get home. In that case the residue in the pot was sort of gray, definitely not black; I guess it depends on what’s in the local water supply.
Then there was the guy who set out to make College Spaghetti: put a pot of cold water on the stove, add spaghetti, set burner on incandescent. He then wandered off to take a long phone call from his girlfriend. Charcoal ensued.
I wouldn’t recommend the vinegar route - it’s TOO acidic! We did this once to try and clean up the mess left by a roommate burning water, and it rusted the pot! Of course, it was a VERY cheap pot (we were poor students, we paid 30$ for a set of 5 pots and pans!) but it still rusted horribly and we had to throw it out anyways.
LiveonAPlane and Johnny L.A., if marriage ensues, I’m invited…
Everyone else, thanks for the advice. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get it back, it’s looking better already, with nothing but a green scrubby and some water.
And I know, you can’t burn water, but seriously, “Holy mother of God, I’ve burnt some local impurities from my water supply” just isn’t as funny.
It’s not like I never screwed anything up in the kitchen before. Well, there was the time I made pizza with undercooked bacon. And dinner the other night was less than stellar… :smack:
Burned water. Standard fare in my house, when my wife’s doing the cooking. She’s burned every pot we own.
She once bought a set of bamboo rice steamers, which you stack up on top of a pot of boiling water, fill with vegetables, and a short time later you have steamed vegetables. Provided you don’t let the pot run out of water, and heat up, and boil the sap out of the steamers so it runs down the side of the pot, where the fire is, and catch fire, and suddenly you don’t have steamers any more, you have a pot full of smoky vegetables, a little ring of ash around your pot, a kitchen full of smoke and a roommate who isn’t speaking to you.
We had pizza that night.
She asked me once why the smoke alarms were unplugged. I pointed out that they went off every time she cooked, and I was tired of climbing up onto the chair to shut them off. She asked why the ones up on the 3rd floor were unplugged, then, and I said, because they go off every time she cooked…
Y’know, if you’ve got someone in your house with a propensity for burning things, unplugging your smoke detectors is probably the absolute last thing you want to do, however annoying they might be.
I don’t have a solution, but I came in to share my story, too, so the OP would feel better. I’ve told it in the MMP once before, so some may have heard it already.
I was getting ready to cook something on the stove one day, and I had placed a plastic Tupperware container on a different burner (note: do not try this at home), ready to hold the food when it was all done. Turned on the heat, and of course, managed to turn on the heat under the Tupperware container.
But wait! That’s not all.
The sink is literally 1.5 feet to the left of the stove. I measured it, after. The Tupperware container lit on fire, but not completely. The top was still unburnt, and could be held. Instead of my mind saying to me, cooly and calmly (note the blue for calmness):
Self, the Tupperware container is on fire. The sink is very close to your hand. Pick up Tupperware, and dump into sink.
My mind said to me (note the red):
FIRE! FIRE! ON THE STOVE! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIIIIIIIIIIIE!
I screamed. The SO came on the run. He looked at the stove, looked at me like :dubious:, picked up the Tupperware, and dumped it into the sink. Then he turned and looked at me like this. :mad: …
He has never let me live that one down. He never will.
I’ve also abentmidenly set a plastic bowl on a burner that I had recently used. I was visiting one of my sisters at the time and was used to using a metal bowl at home.
Fuck! Are you serious?! My main wok is like that and I’ve actually noticed these bits in my food the last time I cooked with it. Up until now I’ve been too tight fisted to get a new one, but maybe I will now. Sorry to hijack, but what’s the level of risk?
To my knowledge, this hasn’t been firmly established. From what I can tell, the risk of consuming Teflon is somewhat greater than “Well, that’s no good” but not quite up to the level of “Oh my God, you’re going to die”. Personally, I’d toss it. I prefer a cast iron wok–it’s every bit as nonstick as Teflon once it’s seasoned and it holds up well without the potential health risks of Teflon. If you insist on Teflon, then you must NEVER EVER use any kind of abrasive cleaning pad or compound on it. You’re supposed to just wipe it clean with a damp cloth or sponge, then apply a light coat of cooking oil to the surface. Don’t even use soap and water on it. When cooking, only use rubber, wood or soft plastic cooking utensils. Never use metal utensils!
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Since there are so many unavoidable things in life that are “no good”, I figure one more shouldn’t make a lot of difference :). I knew most of the things you mention about care of Teflon (this pan was old anyway, and I’m not sure my housemates keep to your suggestions) except the no soap and water bit - I’ll bear that in mind next time. Since washing up tends to take place at least a week after the meal, however, I suspect it may be somewhat difficult to adhere to (pun intended).
My place heats unevenly. It’s very possible for the thermostat to be at a nice 72 degrees, while the rest of the house is either tropical or arctic (whichever I don’t want at the time). To prevent the automatic cutoff, I crank the thermostat in whichever direction until it occurs to me I should reset it (ie - I’m too hot or too cold). At that point, the thermostat gets set to a reasonable temperature and all is bliss.
FWIW, I’ve never burned water. But I did have a huge bumble-bee fly straight into my BBQ grill one time. Its one of those grills that has a hot metal plate between the fire & the actual grill. I have no idea why the bee thought it was good idea…needless to say, he didn’t make it out. I can still identify his remains if I look hard enough.
:dubious:, picked up the Tupperware, and dumped it into the sink. Then he turned and looked at me like this. :mad: …